Well,
Shunt seems to have settled into a conversational pattern that has no
rhyme, reason or rules - rejoice! We have fun and Alan and Recoil get
a shout-out every now and then; it's like being in a coffee house where
everybody likes the owner. And this month, everybody posted like they
had a quadruple espresso with extra crystal meth. I don't even know where
to begin!

As
the Mad Hatter said, "Begin at the beginning and when you come to
the end, stop." Sage advice when the topics you're trying to summarize
do neither.

Jensenne started August off with some music recommendations
which everybody joined in on to some degree. Dusty posthumed
what Alan's disco dancing would be like (see Q+A) while Dominic threatened
to kill us all, which I felt was a nice touch.

Duck and Adrian had
a discussion about dressing for success and the cost to one's soul, Butterstump introduced
himself with a bang and Andrew and Greg chattered about how much
Delaware sucks (like that needs to be said). Stacey,Tracey, Kellie
J. (sounds like a cheerleading squad, huh?), Sycamore and Krzysztof spoke
about the aspirations and convictions of youth while Kelly Marie and Agent
Orange bantered (or should I say 'cantered'?) about horses.

Everybody
talked about David Lynch again and tattoos while everyone else
(especially Ben) gave Vi a good natured hard time about
moving to Oakland. K.J. defended it in her sort of unbalanced
way.

Duck
discussed his deep love of, and history with Erasure, while Sycamore composed
a page designed to trash them. Julie, Dusty, KJ and Vi worshipped Curve and
everybody panned the complete living hell out of 'For The Masses'. Stacey and Kryzsztof worshipped The
The and nobody understood why.

Dusty
tried to start a series of on-topic (i.e. about Alan) discussions which
resulted in a series of enlightening, entertaining and totally off-topic
explorations of hero worship, nostalgia, the future and the 80s. I'm
excited to see where it goes next month. Perhaps you lurkers will add
your two cents (or pence, or yen or whatever you use to pay for beer
and porn, you sick little Shuntlings).

We
somehow managed to fit Tab, Dairy Queen, corpses, music news, boy talk
(illuminating to say the least), rumours and disdain for the new Depeche
Mode material in the last week. Thanks to Agent Orange, Vi (come
back soon!) Anthony, Brady, Henrik, Greg,
KJ, & Dusty for keeping the last week as varied as the Pick-a-Mix
bin at the Pathmark (I look forward to watching all you non-American
Shunters try to figure out what the heck that means).

Greg
Deola, that psycho from Capital City, USA, wins Quote Of The
Month yet again because this actually
made me go into the bathroom and check my boxers:

"I can see Cookie Monster holding up a choc-chipper and incessantly screaming
'Du hast!' at it."

Until
next month, keep your shunts clean and try not to get subpoenaed by Kenneth
Starr.